Double Indemnity is an all-time classic. I'm not sure how it would fit in with the cold war tension (maybe the life insurance angle?), but it is a beautiful film.
I have to say - I always found DI overrated but mostly because I couldn't take any of the dialog seriously. I know it was apropos for the time and style but it just felt too "oh? Wise guy, eh?" for me.
Cosign on Kiss me Deadly, that film really encompasses a lot of what you want to talk about. Also check out Night and the City; it???s a great film dealing with the entrapment of the city, it comes during the shift from rural to city living in America. In terms of the noir female, watch Gun Crazy for an interesting representation of the threat of female sexuality. There is a really good book on noir by James Narmore called More than Night, which you might want to take a look at. I just finished taking a seminar on noir, so if you are looking for the names of some essays to use, let me know.
I'm renting "Kiss Me Deadly" this weekend and will peep. And yeah, someone else recommended "More Than Night."
Double Indemnity is an all-time classic. I'm not sure how it would fit in with the cold war tension (maybe the life insurance angle?), but it is a beautiful film.
I have to say - I always found DI overrated but mostly because I couldn't take any of the dialog seriously. I know it was apropos for the time and style but it just felt too "oh? Wise guy, eh?" for me.
Blasphemy! DI (along with Out of the Past) is the quintessential noir.
Maybe stylistically but the script was cornball to me.
Double Indemnity is an all-time classic. I'm not sure how it would fit in with the cold war tension (maybe the life insurance angle?), but it is a beautiful film.
I have to say - I always found DI overrated but mostly because I couldn't take any of the dialog seriously. I know it was apropos for the time and style but it just felt too "oh? Wise guy, eh?" for me.
Blasphemy! DI (along with Out of the Past) is the quintessential noir.
Maybe stylistically but the script was cornball to me.
That script is what makes the movie! My friends and I watched that movie over and over years ago and memorized entire scenes. It might be seen as campy, but it's still great! If nothing else, you can laugh at it giving the movie a new twist from its original context.
Actually, I didn't recommend Last Man Standing, although I do like that film plenty - did you know it is a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo? Which itself was an adaptation of Dashiell ("Maltese Falcon") Hammett's first novel, "Red Harvest" - although Kurosawa deined that the Hammett novel was the source, the stories are exactly the same.
Shiggy: If you're challenging the convention of equating post-WWII, Cold War anxiety with noir, name another popular, influential genre of film that would be equally rich. I can appreciate if you find that to be a narrow lens but that doesn't make it un-useful or illegitimate. Just to look at another example, hip-hop's hardly the only musical genre that's reflective of post-industrialization in America...but it's still not a bad way to go if you want to look at the relationship between society and culture.
I'm just saying dude - don't throw the baby out with the bathwahwah.
MUSICALS!!!
america's [hollywood's] tendency to supress its anxiety with fantastical unreality is a bit more interesting, not to mention deliciously entertaining.
Actually, I didn't recommend Last Man Standing, although I do like that film plenty - did you know it is a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo? Which itself was an adaptation of Dashiell ("Maltese Falcon") Hammett's first novel, "Red Harvest" - although Kurosawa deined that the Hammett novel was the source, the stories are exactly the same.
No I was just trying to open the thread all Noir-type shit.
Shiggy: If you're challenging the convention of equating post-WWII, Cold War anxiety with noir, name another popular, influential genre of film that would be equally rich. I can appreciate if you find that to be a narrow lens but that doesn't make it un-useful or illegitimate. Just to look at another example, hip-hop's hardly the only musical genre that's reflective of post-industrialization in America...but it's still not a bad way to go if you want to look at the relationship between society and culture.
I'm just saying dude - don't throw the baby out with the bathwahwah.
MUSICALS!!!
america's [hollywood's] tendency to supress its anxiety with fantastical unreality is a bit more interesting, not to mention deliciously entertaining.
Good call. Check out (aside from all the obvious candidates) Minnelli's Yolanda and the Thief...
Also check out Night and the City; it???s a great film dealing with the entrapment of the city, it comes during the shift from rural to city living in America.
Great film, but it takes place in LONDON.
As far as DI being overrated, I kinda agree. It's definitely the quintessential noir, but maybe too much so. Not a lot of room surprise, even though I love the ending. On the other hand, Out of the Past is one of my great favorites, no matter the genre.
All you Out of the Past fans need to track down Nightfall, director Jacques Tourneur's other great Noir - out of circulation for years, but recently restored, hopefully in anticipation of a DVD release. It's based on a novel by David Goodis, who had other novels made into more famous films, namely the Bogart/Bacall vehicle Dark Passage and the Francois Truffaut Noir homage, Shoot the Piano Player.
since the suggestion of comparative criticism between raplips and b-movie noir has been introduced, i think i can draw a few similarities.
k, so rap was cool. i mean, when i was barely first hearing it a long time ago, it was all neato and stuff. and then the intellectuals got to it, and canonized it, and forced it into more definable "elements". at which point it sucked ass. i mean, im not a superduper geek about my raps. i like it. some of it. but i dont think there should be some sort of list of rap albums someone should listen to before they can call themselves a fan. thats some hierachical academic style bullshit.
noir. which isnt wasnt really a "genre" per se. it was a bunch of french dudes noticing a trend among b-movies. some are good. some suck much ass. but now that american scholars are in line, there's like a whole canon of "noir" films and even directors that are conscious of the fact that theyre making noir. i mean, you can equate that to every poopy "hip-hop" "artist" making "real hip-hop".
ok, i dont know where im going with this except to say noir isnt really noir. but musicals are musicals. and theyre more representative to a time period based on the simple fact that they were made for the masses. noir was an afterthought. filler. not to say there isnt some inherent social indicators that can be extrapolated from it. because there is. but its just another thing that the scholars have basically blown up and done ruined. thank you. papers due next friday bitches!
Double Indemnity is an all-time classic. I'm not sure how it would fit in with the cold war tension (maybe the life insurance angle?), but it is a beautiful film.
I have to say - I always found DI overrated but mostly because I couldn't take any of the dialog seriously. I know it was apropos for the time and style but it just felt too "oh? Wise guy, eh?" for me.
Blasphemy! DI (along with Out of the Past) is the quintessential noir.
Maybe stylistically but the script was cornball to me.
Duuuuuuuuuuude! No dis but good thing this isn't a film studies class.
Comments
I have to say - I always found DI overrated but mostly because I couldn't take any of the dialog seriously. I know it was apropos for the time and style but it just felt too "oh? Wise guy, eh?" for me.
I'm renting "Kiss Me Deadly" this weekend and will peep. And yeah, someone else recommended "More Than Night."
Maybe stylistically but the script was cornball to me.
That script is what makes the movie! My friends and I watched that movie over and over years ago and memorized entire scenes. It might be seen as campy, but it's still great! If nothing else, you can laugh at it giving the movie a new twist from its original context.
Soundtracks included.
Western Neo-Noir. I likey.
Uh...this is just a remake of:
although I do like that film plenty - did you know it is
a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo? Which itself was an
adaptation of Dashiell ("Maltese Falcon") Hammett's first
novel, "Red Harvest" - although Kurosawa deined that the Hammett
novel was the source, the stories are exactly the same.
MUSICALS!!!
america's [hollywood's] tendency to supress its anxiety with fantastical unreality is a bit more interesting, not to mention deliciously entertaining.
No I was just trying to open the thread all Noir-type shit.
Good call. Check out (aside from all the obvious candidates) Minnelli's Yolanda and the Thief...
Great film, but it takes place in LONDON.
As far as DI being overrated, I kinda agree. It's definitely the quintessential noir, but maybe too much so. Not a lot of room surprise, even though I love the ending. On the other hand, Out of the Past is one of my great favorites, no matter the genre.
track down Nightfall, director Jacques Tourneur's
other great Noir - out of circulation for years, but recently
restored, hopefully in anticipation of a DVD release.
It's based on a novel by David Goodis, who had other novels
made into more famous films, namely the Bogart/Bacall vehicle
Dark Passage and the Francois Truffaut Noir homage,
Shoot the Piano Player.
k, so rap was cool. i mean, when i was barely first hearing it a long time ago, it was all neato and stuff. and then the intellectuals got to it, and canonized it, and forced it into more definable "elements". at which point it sucked ass. i mean, im not a superduper geek about my raps. i like it. some of it. but i dont think there should be some sort of list of rap albums someone should listen to before they can call themselves a fan. thats some hierachical academic style bullshit.
noir. which isnt wasnt really a "genre" per se. it was a bunch of french dudes noticing a trend among b-movies. some are good. some suck much ass. but now that american scholars are in line, there's like a whole canon of "noir" films and even directors that are conscious of the fact that theyre making noir. i mean, you can equate that to every poopy "hip-hop" "artist" making "real hip-hop".
ok, i dont know where im going with this except to say noir isnt really noir. but musicals are musicals. and theyre more representative to a time period based on the simple fact that they were made for the masses. noir was an afterthought. filler. not to say there isnt some inherent social indicators that can be extrapolated from it. because there is. but its just another thing that the scholars have basically blown up and done ruined. thank you. papers due next friday bitches!
a great one!
Duuuuuuuuuuude! No dis but good thing this isn't a film studies class.